Breaking Concrete
Breaking concrete (Length 0:52)
The specimen that you’re seeing there. The weight of that is about 40,000 pounds. And it’s too heavy to pickup and move as an independent entity. So what we have to do is actually cast it in place. So we build the form work for it. Tie the reinforcing cage together. Cast the concrete. Allow it to cure, to gain strength. Take away the form work. Then begin the set up of the experiment. Apply the instruments. Apply the hydraulic actuators. Test it. And then we have to get rid of it, which is always a challenge, to remove that specimen. We have to cut it up into three individual pieces and remove it piece by piece from the laboratory. So just to test one of those specimens takes quite an undertaking both in terms of resources that it takes, time and money.